We, and most of our friends on IRC, frequently use !ping to check our lag time. !Ping sends a
message to other users and back to us. That reply is counted in seconds, giving us the time it
took for our message to reach them and return to us.

We have all experienced what we consider
very bad ping replies, hence saying "we are very lagged." The truth of it is, we are not lagged.
No one is ever really lagged themselves; they are only lagged to each other. This "lag" is
determined by where we are located from each other, and what problems are between us on the
net that day.

A very basic network would be set up as A-B-C-D. If you happen to be on A and your friend is
on D, then the time it would take for them to receive your request for ping would take longer
than if they were on B. There is no other way for the information to travel except from
A-B-C-D.

If there happens to be trouble on B or C, then you are going to have an even greater
ping time from your friend on D. These delays (or extreme lag) are caused by server overload,
server abuse (i.e.,flooding and wasting bandwidth), congested links, or poor routing. Constantly
asking for pings only helps to add to the congestion and increase the lag.

One way you might
help this problem, if you are trying to chat with someone specific, would be for both of you to
use the same server. Also, DCC (Direct Client to Client) Chat would help with the problems of
lag between two users.